Nursing theories: relic or stepping stone?

The title of Dr. Laurie Gottlieb’s editorial in a recent issue of CJNR devoted exclusively to student research reports says it all — “The Quality of Student Papers Augurs Well for the Future of Nursing Research” (Gottlieb, 2002, p. 3). As Dr. Gottlieb remarks, the papers indicate that nursing students are using a diversity of research methods, participating in their supervisors’ research programs, and being well mentored.Also, the unprecedented opportunities that are opening up for nurses interested in pursuing a career in nursing research identiŽ ed in the same issue by Edwards, DiCenso, Degner, O’Brien-Pallas, and Lander (2002) are very encouraging. On reading the student research issue of the Journal, I was impressed with the progress that has been made and is continuing to be made in developing research expertise in nursing.At the same time, since only one study in the issue appears to be based on a nursing theory, I found myself wondering what progress is being made in terms of meeting the clarion call of the 1970s and 1980s for research based on nursing theories (or what are referred to, at times, as conceptual models of nursing). Are we no longer heeding that call, thinking that it is not necessary to base our research on nursing theories — that nursing theories are a relic of our past? This just may be the case, given what has been happening in the nursing theories arena. Recently, Dr. Peggy Chinn (2001) sounded an alarm about the fact that, increasingly, American nursing education programs are eliminating nursing theory courses and reverting to a medical orientation. In Canada, nursing theory is being incorporated into courses other than those concerned solely with nursing theory. In their survey of 87 nurses from 47 health-care agencies in Canada, Simpson and Taylor (2002) found that nurses from only one quarter of the agencies reported that a formal conceptual model of nursing was used at their facility. Events such as the recent health-care cutbacks, loss of nursing supervisory positions, and CJNR 2003,Vol. 35 No 2, 3–7